Research Subject Area: Anthropology

REF impact found 32 Case Studies

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Summary of the impact

Wilkinson has developed, evaluated and applied techniques, standards and
datasets for facial depiction and identification of the dead. The impacts
include:

Improved social welfare by establishing an international forensic tool
that has enhanced forensic identification from human remains, and
correspondingly improved law enforcement services and disaster victim
identification.

Delivered highly skilled people and international standards in
forensic craniofacial identification.

Provided cultural enrichment through enhanced public engagement with
science and art internationally, through the craniofacial depiction of
historical figures and ancient human remains.

Summary of the impact

The impact described in this case study is the significant enhancement of
the public understanding and appreciation of the work of the French writer
Guillaume Apollinaire, notably through greater awareness of the quality of
the work resulting from his creative dialogues with Pablo Picasso and
other visual artists. This impact has been achieved through Peter Read's
collaborations with museum curators (especially at the Centre Pompidou in
Metz, France), and through the dissemination of his archival research
findings in major exhibition catalogues, illustrated books, magazine and
newspaper articles, public lectures, and radio broadcasts. Read's research
has also been cited in influential works by other critics, biographers,
and historians. As a result, Read's research is now a key point of
reference in the public discussion of Apollinaire, Picasso, and other
Paris-based writers and artists of the early twentieth century.

Research Subject Area(s)

Summary of the impact

Memory Maps is an online archive of writings and images inspired
by East Anglia and especially Essex. The project explores people's
relationship with place. It seeks to alter public perceptions of the
region and to foster ecological awareness of the natural and the made
environment. Developed by Essex literature academics in collaboration with
The Victoria and Albert Museum, the Memory Maps project has
successfully stimulated amateurs and professionals to practise the genre
of psycho-geographical writing. The team has also promoted the project to
a wide general audience through public symposia, book festivals, and
contributions to international media including a feature-length
documentary.

Summary of the impact

The Unforgotten Coat, winner of the 2012 Guardian
Children's Fiction Prize and German
Children's Book Award 2013, has been praised for highlighting the plight
of young asylum seekers.
It remains a core text for the Reader Organisation (RO) reading groups in
the community and in
prison. It was launched on World Book Day 2011, distributed to
approximately 50,000
disenfranchised children and has been translated into several languages,
receiving worldwide
acclaim. The subject matter, and creative process underpinning it, fed
directly into important
learning initiatives and materials for schools in the North West,
workshops at Liverpool's Bluecoat
Arts Centre and for Merseyside's the Haven Project. The international
reach of the book is
reflected in its victory in the aforementioned Deutscher
Jugendliteraturpreis 2013 and a further
nomination for the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY)
for the prestigious 2014
IBBY international Honours List in Mexico 2014, a nomination based on its
highlighting of the lives
of today's young asylum seekers.

Summary Impact Type

Research Subject Area(s)

Summary of the impact

As a result of research by Prof. Sanjoy Bhattacharya since October 2010
at York into the history of
disease control, the social determinants of health, and primary
healthcare, the Department of
History's Centre for Global Health Histories (CGHH) was invited to
formalize and develop the
WHO's Global Health Histories (GHH) project, including its annual flagship
seminar series in
Geneva. This research programme has had a major impact on institutional
practice within the
WHO headquarters and its regional offices: (i) through the promotion of
greater transparency and
openness toward internal and external stakeholders; (ii) in leading the
WHO to use historical
research for staff training and development; (iii) by leading the WHO to
encourage partner
governmental and non-governmental organizations to make greater use of
historical research in
developing and running health policies. Due to the success of GHH in these
areas, historical
analysis has now been designated an Office Specific Expected Result
for departments within the
WHO HQ. It is now an officially required and audited activity for
evaluations of major campaigns
and for teams planning new projects.

Submitting Institution

University of York

Unit of Assessment

History

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health ServicesStudies In Human Society: Anthropology, Policy and Administration

Summary of the impact

Five historic Blackfoot First Nations hide shirts held in the Pitt Rivers
Museum (PRM) since 1893
were lent to two museums in Alberta, Canada, to promote cross-cultural
exchange of knowledge.
Under historic assimilation policies (1885-1970), most heritage objects
had been removed from
Blackfoot communities to museums, contributing to the destabilization of
Blackfoot cultural identity
and poor mental and physical health typical of indigenous populations. For
the first time in a
century over 500 Blackfoot people were able to handle objects made before
the assimilation era.
This provoked the sharing of cultural knowledge within the Blackfoot
community, led to improved
self-esteem, and intensified interest and pride in cultural identity. In
exchange, Blackfoot people
shared cultural knowledge about the shirts with museum professionals from
all UK museums with
significant Blackfoot collections, trained them in new approaches to
museology, and co-curated
exhibitions sharing Blackfoot perspectives in Alberta and Oxford reaching
over 50,000 people.

Summary of the impact

A popular, influential and highly acclaimed public exhibition at the
Wellcome Collection, London, and Wien Museum, `Madness and Modernity:
Mental Illness and the Visual Arts in Vienna 1900' (2009), demonstrates
the impacts of an interdisciplinary research cluster within Birkbeck's
History of Art Department. Working with a number of academic and
non-academic partners in Plymouth, London and Vienna, the AHRC-funded
project contributed a new understanding of the development and role of the
arts in turn-of-the-century Vienna. By engaging participants in new
experiences and knowledge, it generated considerable media interest and
public discourse that particularly benefited the non-academic partners.

Submitting Institution

Birkbeck College

Unit of Assessment

Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory

Summary Impact Type

Cultural

Research Subject Area(s)

Summary of the impact

Making Histories Visible produces visual art projects with
internationally recognised museums and galleries, in which new artworks
and installations activate institutional and curatorial policies to
re-examine collections and collecting. By investigating the historic
through the contemporary, using the mechanisms of display and
interventions, youth centred workshops, symposia, web-sites and
publications; we help museums find new relevance within contemporary
society.

Research Subject Area(s)

Summary of the impact

Recent calls from indigenous peoples for information about and access to
historic artefacts crucial to their well-being have led to a re-evaluation
of both private and museum-held collections. These collections are now
being used in innovative ways to revitalise cultural knowledge and to
record marginalised historical perspectives. This case study documents one
such project. The funding for the Material Histories project
(2005-07), which came from AHRC, included specific provision for public
outreach work. This comprised a temporary exhibition held at the Marischal
Museum, University of Aberdeen (4 February to 11 May 2008), an educational
website and public talks. Most recently the project has stimulated the
development of cultural awareness training in Northern Manitoba, Canada.

Summary of the impact

Investigating how artistic reputation is constructed and sustained,
Meyrick considers the
professional and institutional forces that shape our artistic heritage.
Sourcing, documenting,
interpreting and displaying difficult-to-access artworks and archival
materials, his research
raises awareness of once influential now forgotten 20th-century British
artists and collectors.
Recovering `lost' cultural capital, Meyrick engages the public through
touring exhibitions,
publications and public appearances. His research outcomes enrich our
cultural life as well as
public understanding and appreciation of British print history and Welsh
visual culture. They are
the principal sources of reference for a wide range of beneficiaries, from
curators and dealers
to broadcasters and general audiences.